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<span id="Installing-Dir-Entries"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Invoking-install_002dinfo.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Invoking <code>install-info</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Other-Info-Directories.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Other Info Directories</a>, Up: <a href="Installing-an-Info-File.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Installing an Info File</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<span id="Installing-Info-Directory-Files"></span><h4 class="subsection">21.2.4 Installing Info Directory Files</h4>
<p>When you install an Info file onto your system, you can use the program
<code>install-info</code> to update the Info directory file <samp>dir</samp>.
Normally the makefile for the package runs <code>install-info</code>, just
after copying the Info file into its proper installed location.
</p>
<span id="index-dircategory"></span>
<span id="index-direntry"></span>
<p>In order for the Info file to work with <code>install-info</code>, you include
the commands <code>@dircategory</code> and
<code>@direntry</code>…<code>@end direntry</code> in the Texinfo source
file. Use <code>@direntry</code> to specify the menu entries to add to the
Info directory file, and use <code>@dircategory</code> to specify which part
of the Info directory to put it in. Here is how these commands are used
in this manual:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@dircategory Texinfo documentation system
@direntry
* Texinfo: (texinfo). The GNU documentation format.
* install-info: (texinfo)Invoking install-info. …
…
@end direntry
</pre></div>
<p>Here’s what this produces in the Info file:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">INFO-DIR-SECTION Texinfo documentation system
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Texinfo: (texinfo). The GNU documentation format.
* install-info: (texinfo)Invoking install-info. …
…
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
</pre></div>
<p>The <code>install-info</code> program sees these lines in the Info file, and
that is how it knows what to do.
</p>
<p>Always use the <code>@direntry</code> and <code>@dircategory</code> commands near
the beginning of the Texinfo input, before the first <code>@node</code>
command. If you use them later on in the input, <code>install-info</code>
will not notice them.
</p>
<p><code>install-info</code> will automatically reformat the description of the
menu entries it is adding. As a matter of convention, the description
of the main entry (above, ‘<samp>The GNU documentation format</samp>’) should
start at column 32, starting at zero (as in
<code>what-cursor-position</code> in Emacs). This will make it align with
most others. Description for individual utilities best start in
column 48, where possible. For more information about formatting see
the ‘<samp>--calign</samp>’, ‘<samp>--align</samp>’, and ‘<samp>--max-width</samp>’ options in
<a href="Invoking-install_002dinfo.html">Invoking <code>install-info</code></a>.
</p>
<p>If you use <code>@dircategory</code> more than once in the Texinfo source,
each usage specifies the ‘current’ category; any subsequent
<code>@direntry</code> commands will add to that category.
</p>
<span id="index-Free-Software-Directory"></span>
<span id="index-Dir-categories_002c-choosing"></span>
<span id="index-Categories_002c-choosing"></span>
<p>When choosing a category name for the <code>@dircategory</code> command, we
recommend consulting the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/directory">Free Software Directory</a>. If your program is not listed there,
or listed incorrectly or incompletely, please report the situation to
the directory maintainers (<a href="http://directory.fsf.org">http://directory.fsf.org</a>) so that the
category names can be kept in sync.
</p>
<p>Here are a few examples (see the <samp>util/dir-example</samp> file in the
Texinfo distribution for large sample <code>dir</code> file):
</p>
<div class="display">
<pre class="display">Emacs
Localization
Printing
Software development
Software libraries
Text creation and manipulation
</pre></div>
<span id="index-Invoking-nodes_002c-including-in-dir-file"></span>
<p>Each ‘Invoking’ node for every program installed should have a
corresponding <code>@direntry</code>. This lets users easily find the
documentation for the different programs they can run, as with the
traditional <code>man</code> system.
</p>
<hr>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Invoking-install_002dinfo.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Invoking <code>install-info</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Other-Info-Directories.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Other Info Directories</a>, Up: <a href="Installing-an-Info-File.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Installing an Info File</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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